On their last day of session before the November election, House Republicans brought to the Floor exactly the same kind of partisan messaging bills that they have wasted time on throughout the 113th Congress.

As Thomas Jefferson, and those who wrote with him said, ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident.’ What we have found throughout history is, it may be self-evident, but it is not self-executed. That is why this legislation is necessary.

Let me tell you, Wade Henderson, Steny Hoyer used to be the Majority Leader. Steny Hoyer had the power as the Majority Leader to put a bill on the Floor or keep it off the Floor. If Steny Hoyer were the Majority Leader of the House, and Nancy Pelosi was the Speaker of the House, this bill would be on the Floor.

Last night’s vote on H.R. 2996 to authorize a national network of manufacturing institutes was an important Make It In America priority, and I want to thank Rep. Joe Kennedy for his leadership in working across the aisle to achieve this victory for America’s manufacturers.

Madam Speaker, sadly the Majority is pressing forward later this week with two partisan messaging bills cloaked in the rhetoric of creating jobs and expanding opportunity – bills that actually do neither.

I join in celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, which begins today. Since our nation’s earliest days, Latinos have played an important role in building strong democratic institutions, making our economy the strongest in the world, and fighting under our flag in defense of freedom.

House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) discussed the ISIL threat, the need to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, and Republican inaction on a number of critical priorities, including jobs and immigration reform, on C-Span's "Newsmakers." Below are excerpts and a link to the video...

Tomorrow marks the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Violence Against Women Act, landmark legislation to crack down on domestic violence and assist survivors as they seek justice and healing. I was proud to support passage of this law in 1994 as well as a reauthorization in 2013 that extended new protections to LGBT Americans, immigrants, and Native Americans.

Today I join in marking twenty years of AmeriCorps working to strengthen communities through volunteerism and citizen engagement. Often called the ‘domestic Peace Corps,’ AmeriCorps was created by the bipartisan 1993 National and Community Service Trust Act, which I was proud to cosponsor, and expanded by the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act in 2009.

Tonight, President Obama laid out a clear and comprehensive counterterrorism strategy to degrade and destroy the terrorist group ISIL, which has murdered two American journalists along with thousands of innocent Iraqis and Syrians.

With stock markets climbing and recent economic growth strong, the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for August shows that employers are still struggling with uncertainty exacerbated by gridlock in Congress and a Republican House Majority that refuses to work across the aisle in a serious effort to promote fiscal sustainability, invest in job growth, or make our tax code more competitive.

The Export-Import Bank is one of the most important tools we have for helping American small businesses access foreign markets, and Congress must not allow its authorization to expire on September 30 and place over 200,000 export-dependent jobs in danger.

On this Labor Day, I join in celebrating the workers of our nation, who are not only the most productive in the world but who have fought hard and won important rights in the workplace that make our economy stronger for all.